The present invention relates to a voice conference system and, more particularly, to a voice conference system using echo cancellers.
In a long-distance telephone network, an echo canceller is coupled to a combination of transmitter and receiver. The echo canceller receives a receive-in signal from a remote party through a receiving path, feeds a receive-out signal to the receiver, receives a send-in signal from the transmitter, and delivers a send-out signal to the remote party through a sending path.
The send-in signal comprises an audio signal when voice or conversation is input to the transmitter. The audio signal becomes the send-out signal. The receive-out signal corresponds to the receive-in signal. The receive-in signal also comprises an audio signal which is produced by the remote party and causes the receiver to reproduce audible sound. The audio signal comprises by the send-in and the receive-in signals, will herein be called an acoustic and a voice signal, respectively, merely for convenience of description. A part of the receive-in signal tends to leak into the send-out signal as an echo signal in the manner known in the art. The echo canceller is for cancelling the echo signal.
Voice conference systems have become known in the art. Such systems are effective for holding a conference or meeting of participants or attendants living in remote locations because the participants need not be present in a single conference or meeting. The system is for use in connecting a plurality of auditoriums by a wired, a radio, and or a satellite communication network.
In a voice conference system, a loudspeaker is used as the receiver A plurality of microphones are used as the transmitter. Output signals of the microphones are mixed and then transmitted as a send-out signal. The loudspeaker is unavoidably acoustically coupled to the microphones. It is inevitable that a part of the audible sound reproduced by the loudspeaker is picked up by the microphones, resulting in a reverberation signal in the send-in signal. The reverberation signal is transferred to the send-out signal and sent back to the remote party. In an unfavorable case, the reverberation signal gives rise to howling. At any rate, the reverberation signal appears from the receive-in signal as an echo signal of a sort in the send-out signal.
For use in a voice conference system, an echo canceller should therefore exempt the send-out signal from the echo signal which comprises the reverberation signal. However, the echo cancelling capability of the echo canceller is limited. Especially, when the distance between the loudspeaker and microphones is reduced for enhancing miniature configuration of the system, it often occurs that the mixing output level of the echo signal exceeds the echo cancelling ability of the echo canceller in the event of reception and thereby renders incoming voice hard to distinguish while inviting howling.